New features of PHP 8.2 in Code Blocks
The release of PHP’s latest version, PHP 8.2, is just around the corner. On December 8, 2022 to be precise.
In this article, I’m going to list all the new features that are going to be introduced in PHP 8.2 in form of code blocks. This way, you can easily copy and paste the code blocks and try them out in your local environment.
This won’t include improvements and bug fixes that come with PHP 8.2. I’m only going to cover the ones that I think are worth mentioning. So, let’s get started.
- Readonly Classes
- The
truetype - The
falseandnulltypes - Using constants in traits
- Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) types
- New Random Extension
Readonly Classes
Readonly classes are just regular classes prepended by the readonly modifier. This feature is in line with the readonly properties that were introduced in PHP 8.1.
readonly class Book
{
public function __construct(
public string $author,
public string $title,
) {}
}
$book = new Book('Ruskin Bond', 'Maharani');
$book->author = 'J. K. Rowling';
// Error: Cannot modify readonly property Book::$author
The true type
The true type is a new type that can be used to specify that a variable can only be assigned a boolean value of true.
function enableFeature(true $feature): true
{
// do something
return true;
}
enableFeature(false);
// PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: enableFeature():
// Argument #1 ($feature) must be of type true, bool given
The false and null types
The false and null types are new types that can be used to specify that a variable can only be assigned a boolean value of false or null respectively.
function disableFeature(false $feature): true
{
// do something
return true;
}
disableFeature(true);
// PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: disableFeature():
// Argument #1 ($feature) must be of type false, bool given,
And here’s an example of the null type:
class Nil
{
public null $nil = null;
public function isNull(null $nil): true
{
/* ... */
return true;
}
}
$nil = new Nil();
$nil->isNull(true);
// PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Nil::isNull():
// Argument #1 ($nil) must be of type null, bool given
Using constants in traits
PHP 8.2 will allow you to use constants in traits. This means that you can now define constants in traits, and they can be used in classes that use the trait as well as in the trait itself.
trait PersonTrait
{
public const MIN_AGE = 18;
public function isAdult(): bool
{
return $this->age >= self::MIN_AGE;
}
}
class Person
{
use PersonTrait;
private int $age;
public function __construct(int $age)
{
$this->age = $age;
}
}
echo Person::MIN_AGE;
// Output: 18
$person = new Person(20);
echo $person->isAdult();
// Output: true
Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) types
PHP 8.2 will introduce a new type called DNF (Disjunctive Normal Form). This type is a combination of the | and & operators. It allows you to specify a type that is the union of two or more types, and each of those types is the intersection of one or more other types.
interface User
{
public function getName(): string;
}
interface Admin
{
public function getName(): string;
}
interface SuperAdmin
{
public function getName(): string;
}
function fetchUserName((Admin&SuperAdmin)|User $user): string
{
return $user->getName();
}
$user = new class implements Admin {
public function getName(): string
{
return 'User';
}
};
fetchUserName($user);
// PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: fetchUserName():
// Argument #1 ($user) must be of type (Admin&SuperAdmin)|User, Admin@anonymous given
New Random Extension
PHP 8.2 will introduce a new random API that will replace the existing mt_rand() and rand() functions. The new API will be based on a single Randomizer class which provides various randomization methods (like get int/bytes, shuffle string/arrays).
$is_production = false;
$rng = $is_production
? new Random\Engine\Secure()
: new Random\Engine\PCG64(1234);
$randomizer = new Random\Randomizer($rng);
$randomizer->shuffleString('jhondoe');
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